Title
Staff Presentation - Request from City Manager and City Attorney to Adjust City Council Meeting Packet Posting Deadlines
Body
Subject- In November 2020 , the City Council requested staff to modify the posting deadline for City Council meeting packets (both full City Council and Council Committee Meetings) from noon Friday to noon Wednesday. The city staff is asking you to consider moving the posting deadline later in the week. If possible, staff would prefer the deadline to be 5PM on Thursdays.
Background - Some Councilmembers expressed the challenge of finding packet review time during the weekends to prepare for the Tuesday evening City Council meetings. Prior to November 2020 the packet deadline was Friday afternoons. A request was made of staff to push it to an earlier time to allow City Councilmembers the opportunity to review the packet on the Wednesday or Thursday the week prior to a City Council meeting. Due to our review time frames the Wednesday noon deadline has created difficulties in our quality review process. We conduct several layers of peer review on packet materials prior to their publication, below is a review process:
a) Packet form and attachments are prepared by project manager or staff person responsible for the issue.
b) Packet form and attachments are reviewed by the Department Head.
c) Packet form and attachments are reviewed by the City Manager or Assistant City Managers
d) Packet form and attachments are reviewed by the Legal Department
e) Any modifications based upon packet review are requested of the original creator of the packet form and attachments
f) Wednesday morning, Management Team conducts a quick review of pending City Council agendas (usually next three meetings)
g) Thursday afternoon, the City Manager and Mayor review the pending City Council agendas (usually next three meetings)
On occasion, the City Council may request a modification to an Bill during a first reading on a Tuesday evening meeting. That modification will need to be completed within the next few working hours to meet the noon Wednesday deadline. It is typical for our Wednesday morning Management Team meetings, involving the Department Heads and City Attorney, will consume most if not all of the Wednesday morning work time. This leaves very little time for a second round of peer review described in steps a thru e above. Without this process, errors will occur or frankly the requested modifications don’t get completed on a timely basis.
The Management Team review of the packets on Wednesday morning may often lead to removing or adding an agenda item to the following Tuesday City Council meeting. Due to the noon Wednesday deadline, we find the need to “amend” the agenda at a later date and republish the information.
During the Thursday afternoon agenda review between the Mayor and City Manager, we may also determine an agenda item will needed to be added or removed for the following Tuesday City Council meeting. Due to the noon Wednesday deadline, we find the need to “amend” the agenda at a later date and republish the information.
We think having a 5PM Thursday afternoon posting deadline will address many of the conflicts we currently see in making final modifications to the agenda based upon City Council action, peer review, or review by the Mayor. In general, we have not seen review activity from City Councilmembers on Wednesday. Typically we receive questions relating to the agenda items during the weekend, on Mondays or perhaps on Tuesdays (day of the Council meeting).
Thank you for considering the support of setting the posting deadline from noon Wednesdays to 5PM Thursdays. We want to serve your needs, but we also want to have the capacity to make changes to agenda items on a timely basis prior to posting for your review (and the public’s review).